A fast-moving fire in the Hollywood Hills which erupted on Wednesday night has produced more evacuation orders for Los Angeles residents as fire crews battled three other major blazes that have killed at least five people.
The Sunset Fire was burning near the Hollywood Bowl and other iconic landmarks in the Hollywood Hills.
President Joe Biden cancelled the final overseas trip of his presidency just hours before he was set to depart for Rome and the Vatican, choosing to remain in Washington to monitor the response to devastating fires raging in California.
Winds were easing and firefighters from across the state were relieving exhausted crews, but as officials provided an update on the fires, the new blaze broke out in the Hollywood Hills and evacuation orders were also extended to Santa Monica.
More than 1,000 structures, mostly homes, have been destroyed, and more than 130,000 people are under evacuation orders in the metropolitan area, from the Pacific Coast inland to Pasadena, a number that continues to shift as new fires erupt.
A thick smoke wafted over many parts of Los Angeles. More than half a dozen schools in the area were either damaged or destroyed, including Palisades Charter High School, which has been featured in many Hollywood productions, including the 1976 horror movie Carrie and the TV series Teen Wolf, officials said.
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass said firefighters from across California and elsewhere had arrived to help along with air operations that were dousing flames.
She warned they still faced “erratic winds”, although not of hurricane force like Tuesday evening, when much of the destruction occurred.
The Palisades Fire ravages a neighbourhood amid high winds in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles (Damian Dovarganes/AP)
In Pasadena, Fire Chief Chad Augustin said between 200 and 500 structures have been damaged or lost from the Eaton Fire that started on Tuesday night.
He said the city’s water system was stretched and was further hampered by power outages but even without those issues, firefighters would not have been able to stop the fire as embers blown by the intense winds ignited block after block.
“We were not stopping that fire last night,” he said. “Those erratic wind gusts were throwing embers for multiple miles ahead of the fire.”
On the Pacific Coast west of downtown Los Angeles, a major fire levelled entire blocks, reducing grocery stores and banks to rubble in the Pacific Palisades, a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity homes and memorialised by the Beach Boys in their 1960s hit Surfin’ USA.
More than 1,000 structures were destroyed in the Palisades fire, the most destructive in the modern history of Los Angeles. Many people were hurt, including first responders, LA County fire chief Anthony Marrone said.
Firefighters work from a deck as the Palisades Fire burns a beachfront property in Malibu (Etienne Laurent/AP)
Mr Biden was scheduled to leave for Italy on Thursday, after eulogising former president Jimmy Carter at a memorial service in Washington, for the three-day trip to meet with Pope Francis and Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The trip was meant as a coda to the second Catholic US president’s time in the White House and a final opportunity to showcase the strength of American alliances before he leaves office on January 20.
The announcement of the trip’s cancellation comes just hours after Mr Biden left Los Angeles after meeting his first great-grandchild, who was born in a city hospital on Wednesday.
He received a briefing from local fire officials before returning to Washington, as smoke and ash from blazes raging in the area clouded the daytime sky.
He signed a federal emergency declaration after arriving at a Santa Monica fire station for a briefing with Governor Gavin Newsom, who dispatched National Guard troops to help.
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While flying back to Washington on Wednesday, Mr Biden approved a federal major disaster declaration for Los Angeles County, allowing for federal funding to be made available for temporary housing and home repairs as well as low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses.
It also provides additional financial assistance to state and local governments to cover the costs of fighting and cleaning up after the fires.
The flames marched toward highly populated and affluent neighbourhoods, including Calabasas and Santa Monica, home to California’s rich and famous. Hollywood stars.
Mandy Moore, Cary Elwes and Paris Hilton are among the stars who said Wednesday they had lost homes.
Billy Crystal and his wife Janice lost their home of 45 years in the Palisades Fire.
“We raised our children and grandchildren here. Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can’t be taken away,” the Crystals wrote in the statement.
In Palisades Village, the public library, two major grocery stores, a pair of banks and several boutiques were destroyed.
California’s wildfire season is beginning earlier and ending later due to rising temperatures and decreased rainfall tied to climate change, according to recent data.
Rains that usually end fire season are often delayed, meaning fires can burn through the winter months, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association.
Water is dropped by helicopter on the burning Sunset Fire in the Hollywood Hills (Ethan Swope/AP)
Dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer-than-average temperatures in Southern California, which has not seen more than 0.1 inches (0.25 centimetres) of rain since early May.
The winds increased to 80mph on Wednesday, according to reports received by the National Weather Service.
Forecasters predicted wind gusts of 35-55mph which could rise higher in the mountains and foothills. Fire conditions could last through Friday.
Several Hollywood studios suspended production, and Universal Studios closed its theme park between Pasadena and Pacific Palisades.
With an estimated 1,000 structures destroyed and the fire still active, the Palisades Fire is by far the city’s most destructive in modern history, topping the Sayre fire in 2008 that destroyed more than 600 structures, according to statistics kept by the Wildfire Alliance, a partnership between the city’s fire department and MySafe:LA.
Power company Southern California Edison shut off service to thousands because of safety concerns related to high winds and fire risks.
More than 1.5 million customers could face shut offs depending on weather conditions, the utility company said.